Age has not been able to wither the alma mater of Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, the eminent educationist and the founder of Aligarh Muslim University. Liaqat Ali Khan, Pakistan’s first Prime Minister, Maulana Mohammed Hussain Azad, the father of Urdu prose, Deputy Nazir Ahmed, the Urdu essayist and ICS, Akhtarul-Iman, agreat poet,, Mirza M N Masood, an Indian hockey Olympian and many more, i.e., Delhi’s 300-year old Anglo Arabic School/Delhi College (Zakir Hussain College) that began in 1969 as Madrasa Ghaziuddin
Khan.

The historic 300-year old Anglo Arabic School in old DelhiAs an institution of learning, Anglo Arabic School has survived over three centuries. Opened by Ghaziuddin Khan, an influential courtier and brave general of the Mughal emperor
Aurangzeb, the seminary has been serving the cause of education under the labels of Madrasa Ghaziuddin Khan, Anglo Arabic School, Anglo Arabic College, Delhi College and Zakir Hussain College for centuries. This school imparts education to the children of the walled city of Delhi. "As an institution of learning, Anglo Arabic School has been a mute witness to the chequered history of the city including the two famous wars of independence of 1758 and 1857. The building remained unscathed and the imposing Kota sandstone structure successfully evolved into a centre of secular as well as theological learning," remarks a nostalgic Pankaj
Vohra, an old boy of the institution and the associate editor of Hindustan Times.

The elegant building consists of a large enclosure of arched apartments with a gate on the east and a three-domed mosque on the west with an enclosure of perforated stone screens both on the latter’s north as well as south. Domes with octagonal towers against a backdrop of beautiful jharokhas
(parlours) and engravings give a majestic view to the entire surroundings. Inside, there are two hujras (corridors) meant to be used as dormitories for the madrasa students of yore. In the centre of the entire complex, there is a park with plush green grass.

Until 1827, this madrasa was a religious seminary but after the interference of the East India Company, it was Sir Charles Metcalfe who also started the education of English, Mathematics and natural sciences. The marble tablet on the Chemistry lab of the school says:
"Etemad-ud-Daula, Zia-ul-Mulk, Syed Fazal Ali Khan Bahadur Sahab Jung gave 1.70 lakh rupees for the propagation of this institution and gave it in the trust of the Company Bahadur in 1829." In 1840, the institution was shifted to the Darah Shikoh
(Shahajahan’s son) Library at Kashmere Gate. During the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857, it remained closed for 7 years and reopened only in 1867. At that time the English christened it as
"Anglo Arabic College" that later turned into "Delhi College". It’s just amazing how the same premises gave rise to do many forms of temples of learning of which two are still full-fledged institutions.

The most important literary activity in the history of the school was the formation of the Vernacular Translation Society in 1832. As Urdu was the medium of instruction, the students could not avail of the variety found in English, German, French, Algebra, social and natural sciences etc. These were translated in
Urdu. Some of the scholars on job included literary luminaries of the time like Master Pyarey
Lal, Imam Baksh Suhbai, Lala Dharam Narain and brother Prem Narain, Maulana
Zakaullah, Mr Taylor, Mr Butros etc. During the 1830s and 40s, the College had really been at the pinnacle of its pristine glory and was considered to be the centre of Asian "renaissance" as not only the Indians but even some of the English too were its students according to its present Principal and Physics teacher Mr Abdul
Malik.
The real architectural sanctity of the monument comes to the beholder’s eyes once he enters masjid Nawab Ghaziuddin Khan that is skillfully built with red Kota sandstone. The students of the school pray here in the afternoon. Once the mosque had a well and a tank connected to it for the purpose of wuzu (ablutions). There is also a mazaar (shrine) of a saint in the northern side of the mosque. The school suffered during the Sepoy Mutiny when the science laboratories and the library were burnt and along with that umpteen priceless manuscripts turned to ashes.